Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to a modular adapter for tongs.
Description of the Related Art
A wellbore is formed to access hydrocarbon-bearing formations (e.g., crude oil and/or natural gas) or for geothermal power generation by the use of drilling. Drilling is accomplished by utilizing a drill bit that is mounted on the end of a drill string. To drill within the wellbore to a predetermined depth, the drill string is often rotated by a top drive on a drilling rig. After drilling to a predetermined depth, the drill string and drill bit are removed and a string of casing is lowered into the wellbore. An annulus is thus formed between the casing string and the wellbore. The casing string is hung from the wellhead. A cementing operation is then conducted in order to fill the annulus with cement. The casing string is cemented into the wellbore by circulating cement into the annulus defined between the outer wall of the casing and the borehole. The combination of cement and casing strengthens the wellbore and facilitates the isolation of certain areas of the formation behind the casing for the production of hydrocarbons.
A tong set is used to tighten threaded connections between a stand of drill pipe and the drill string or between a joint of casing and the casing string. The tong set includes a power tong and a backup tong. The wrenching tong supplies torque to and rotates the stand or joint being added to the drill or casing string while a backup tong torsionally arrests the string, thereby tightening the threaded connection. The tong set may also be used to assemble production tubing and riser strings.
Due to different rig floor sizes (compact style), configurations and limited availability of positioning systems for tongs to make up and break out pipe joints, it is not always possible to accommodate equipment on the rig floor. This is especially true for deep water wells where heavier and longer strings are run, such as twenty-inch or greater casing sizes. These heavier and longer pipe strings require heavy duty equipment which tends to be bulky. Also, compatibility issues arise between tongs and positioning systems built by different manufacturers due to their limited weight/moment capacity and space to accommodate heavy weight tongs.